NBA Free Agency 2018: 5 offseason targets for the Orlando Magic

The Orlando Magic will not have much money to spend and a ton of holes to fill. They will have to search on a budget but be aggressive in free agency.

The Orlando Magic are a team in need of some massive change.

Six years out of the playoffs has left the team searching for an identity and any measure of success. It has been a long time for the team. In fact, the Magic have not won more than 35 games since Dwight Howard left in 2012.

New management in president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman took a patient approach to rebuilding the team last year. They did not come in and introduce sweeping changes as they looked to make their mark. They had a coach with a good reputation in Frank Vogel and a team that at least had some talent.

The team’s 25-win season was disappointing, to say the least. There were plenty of games lost to injury and that played a major role. But it was also clear Orlando had a lot it needed to work on. The Magic and their new management group needed change to push the franchise forward.

That will start with the selection of Mohamed Bamba with the sixth overall pick in the NBA Draft. That is an important piece to Orlando’s puzzle. And probably the biggest one the team will make. Bamba should help set the team’s defensive identity moving forward — moving those other centers on the roster is a problem for another day.

The Magic might be in one of the worst positions of any franchise in the league right now. They have the potentially intriguing young core of that pick, second-year forward Jonathan Isaac and the emerging Aaron Gordon. But they do not have much cap room to spend on free agency, nor the results to attract anyone of value.

The Magic have one big free agent decision to make in Aaron Gordon’s restricted free agency. And if they re-sign him as expected, that would eat up all of their remaining cap room. Evan Fournier, Nikola Vucevic, Bismack Biyombo and Terrence Ross already make contracts worth more than $10 million per year. And so their books are clogged.

That will leave the Magic with just the mid-level exception to use. Roughly $8 million per year to spend this summer. That will not be enough to add too many players who can make a real impact.

Yet, the Magic need an impact player. And so they will have to go find one somewhere with the resources they have available.